<p>I'm looking to add a school or 2 to a proposed summer trip.
I'm thinking of flying "the boys", DH and DS, into CHicago and out of Minn, or vice versa. Schools of interest are DePaul, Loyola, U of Wis-Madison and St Olaf's.
Of the group, wisconsin is the best fit, although it may be too much of a reach for son. He's interested in medium to big schools with football in a more urban setting. His 2 favs so far have been LSU and Pitt. DePaul and Loyola are only there because of the urban location, he is particularly excited about the idea of living in Chicago one day.
St Olaf's is in the mix because non-parent adults that are important in his life are encoraging him to apply there. We 'rents like the idea of St. Olaf's too, but since he is adamant about no small towns or small schools, I doubt that he will like it. I have gotten him to commit to applying to at least one smaller school, in case he changes his mind between now and next April. This kid is a slow maturer, he is changing and growing up almost daily, and I think he needs to have some variety in his choices.</p>
<p>Any bigger schools with football in the Chicago area that I've overlooked??? Northwestern is way out of his league.</p>
<p>I'd send them into Minn and out through Chicago. Twin Cities schools to consider would be U of Minn (less selective than UW, urban location, nice city with similarities to Chicago) and U of St Thomas. U of Minn has a notoriously bad football team, but it's very easy to get tickets to see other Big 10 teams come play there. There's also the Vikings for a football fix. If you plan to fly home from Chicago, it would be worth making a trip to U of Indiana at Bloomington, a very nice campus. Given his size and football preferences consider U of Iowa of U of Illinois as well. You may be better served by flying both into and out of O'Hare and making a "Big 10 loop"--up I90 to UW I90/94 to U Minn down I35 to U Iowa over to Illinois and Indiana then back up to Chicago.</p>
<p>"Is U of Minn particularly selective for OOS???"</p>
<p>No, it's not. Neither is Iowa, which is really nice.
If he likes DePaul or Loyola, he might like Marquette in Milwaukee. Basketball, not football. Much more residential than DePaul or Loyola.</p>
<p>U of MN just dropped its OOS tuition. We are worried that this might make them become more selective for OOS. My son (age 14) wants to be a Gopher. U of MN fits the bill if football is a big interest.</p>
<p>If you aren't thinking so much about a big football presence on campus, here are a few more thoughts.</p>
<p>My daughter and I visited DePaul once and we absolutely loved it. The kids we know who go there are very happy there. The college has a lot of nice programs. Faculty members are nice. The program in my daughter's major wasn't a fit for her so she didn't apply but we were really surprised at how much we both liked DePaul - we weren't expecting to like it. It is in cool neighborhood with a great campus vibe.</p>
<p>If you are in the Twin Cities area and thinking about considering some smaller colleges, I recommend that you check out Hamline University. The oldest college in Minnesota. A really nice college, a lot of good programs, a pretty campus. About half way between downtown Mpls and downtown St. Paul, with easy access to a lot of Twin Cities stuff. It's only about a mile and a half from Macalester. Macalester is, of course, hard to get into, low acceptance rate. Hamline isn't particularly hard to get into. For many kids, it could end up being a safety school that one really loves. It's got close, easy access to the freeways, too. Close enough to music and movies and professional sports and malls. And there is football at Hamline, of course. Just not Big 10 football. (Minnesotans think MIAC Football is cool: Gusties vs. Tommies, for example.) :-)</p>
<p>Thanks, I've heard good things about DePaul's business program, which is something he is interested in.
We will check out Hamline.</p>
<p>He has visited Michigan State, no small feat coming from Alabama in Feb! MSU is running probably 3rd behind Pitt and LSU, it is probably close to the upper limit of how big he wants to go, and we parents are a little concerned about transport back and forth to East Lansing. He really likes the school, though, and had a good visit, despite going when there were no regular tours. haven't thought too much about Purdue.
Have thought about Indiana, I'll look again at maps.</p>
<p>Another possiblity for Dad and son is to actually drive - big road trip - if they do that they might go through St. Louis, or more easterly through Bloomington.</p>
<p>My bias is showing now, is the Uni of Iowa in town, or more suburban???</p>
<p>I'd second seeing Hamline while in the Twin Cities. Hamline and St Thomas (business-oriented school) are in a consortium with Macalester (which is located in between the two) and 2 other private colleges (Augsburg--literally across the street from U of Minn--and St Kate's). There is cross-registration between all 5 schools and a shuttle bus system between them.<br>
U of Iowa, U of Illinois and U of Indiana would all be in smaller cities, but not rural.</p>
<p>Ohio State completed its state of the art football facility years ago -- always a step ahead. (Sorry, couldn't resist, ChiSquare!) OSU has football and is urban, but may be too large at over 35,000 undergrads. Columbus also is home to Skybus, which offers ten $10 seats on each flight. Don't know where you are in AL, but Skybus flies to Gulfport-Biloxi, MS.</p>
<p>If he is really interested in business and you only have time for either Hamline or St. Thomas, go with St. Thomas, which is stronger in business than Hamline. Hamline is about a mile and a half north of Macalester, and St. Thomas is about a half mile west of Macalester. Many of my other comments about Hamline apply:</p>
<p>"About half way between downtown Mpls and downtown St. Paul, with easy access to a lot of Twin Cities stuff. It's only about a mile and a half from Macalester. Macalester is, of course, hard to get into, low acceptance rate. Hamline isn't particularly hard to get into. For many kids, it could end up being a safety school that one really loves. It's got close, easy access to the freeways, too. Close enough to music and movies and professional sports and malls. And there is football at Hamline, of course. Just not Big 10 football. (Minnesotans think MIAC Football is cool: Gusties vs. Tommies, for example.)" Just switch in St. Thomas where I said Hamline. :-) Hamline has a slightly different feel to it than St. Thomas, a little more liberal, a little more liberal artsy. The difference is small. And being a Catholic school, St. Thomas will have more religion in its core requirements, but then again, so would DePaul.</p>
<p>I had a general impression that Ohio State was hard for out of staters to get into but I am not sure.</p>
<p>Iowa is in Iowa City, a very cool city of about 60,000. The downtown runs right into campus and is a picture-perfect college town. While it's not exactly Madison or Ann Arbor, it reminds me a lot of a flat-land Ithaca, NY. It makes all kinds of lists for best places to live, enlightened places, etc.</p>
<p>Hey, cangel - my DD sounds like a match for your DS! She too wanted an urban university with a good business program, and it looks like she'll be a freshman at DePaul in the fall. MidwestMom is correct - the campus is in a really cool neighborhood and was one of the nicest urban campuses we visited. We also attended the Accepted Students day (for the College of Commerce) and it was great: very enthusiastic professors, a lot of emphasis on hand's-on learning and internships, and just a lot of positive energy. My daughter especially likes the location (lots of good Chicago-type stuff to do nearby) and the vibe she got from the students - happy and outgoing. I was originally a little concerned that she'd be out of place since she's not from the Chicago area, but since then I've met other DePaul parents in the same situation who have assured me that it's not a problem.</p>
<p>DD was also accepted at Loyola. Nice school, beautiful location on the waterfront, but it just didn't "grab" my daughter the way DePaul did. (I think a lot of it was that DePaul likes to emphasize how it's really "part of the city", whereas Loyola is more separate.) Also, although both schools are Catholic, Loyola seemed more overtly religious to my D - not that that's anything BAD, it just wasn't my daughter's "thing."</p>
<p>My D has this grand plan for her life that she's going to live in Chicago after graduation from college, so in her way of reasoning, the DePaul School of Commerce (and their strong alumni network) was perfect. We'll see how the Grand Plan works out, but for now, she's very happy and so excited about the fall. </p>
<p>If you have any questions about these two schools, let me know. I'd love to help!</p>
<p>Is U of Minn particularly selective for OOS???</p>
<p>Actually U of Minn is getting harder to get into. My son had been deferred there for the last few months and just received notification that he was now on a wait list. The letter explained that applications have increased 12% over last year and that 28,000 students applied for a freshman class of 5200. We are out of state, so don't know if that played in to the decision.</p>
<p>Also, my husband and 2nd son went on a couple of college visits last week during spring break. They visited U of Minnesota and St Olaf's. For what it is worth, my son LOVED St. Olaf's and definitely was not prepared to like it as much as he did. It has moved to the top of his list.</p>
<p>Actually, AZKMom, it's not just OOS students. I work at the U of M, and the U has become a lot more selective over the past several years for in-staters as well. </p>
<p>There is something called the Center for Measuring University Performance, which was developed in the 1990s to measure research performance. The center measures schools in 9 categories and summarizes how many of the categories are ranked in the overall top 25. In the center's 2006 report, the U of M had 8 of the 9 measures in the top 25. </p>
<p>The only measure not in the top 25 was selectivity. (That year the U was 30th in SAT/ACT scores. But in 2000, it was 43rd.) With the U's goal of becoming one of the world's leading public research universities, it has become much harder to get into.</p>
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<li>ChiSquare</li>
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<p>P.S. I had the same experience with St. Olaf. Visited, not expecting to like it much, and loved it!</p>